Social Media

Have You Occupied Wall Street? NYC Wants Your Twitter Data

If you've taken part in Occupy Wall Street, then the New York County District Attorney's Office might want to take a peek at your Twitter data.

The DA's office has sent subpoenas to Twitter asking for the data of a handful of people arrested last year as part of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Twitter has been sending those users the text of the subpoenas via email.

In the email, Twitter goes on to notify Rae that the company will respond to New York's subpoena in seven days, unless he notifies Twitter that he intends to "quash" the legal process. It also suggests that Rae "may wish" to speak with a lawyer about the matter.

Attached to Twitter's email was the subpoena itself, in which Twitter is "commanded" to hand over "all public tweets" from mid-September to the end of October of last year. The subpoena also requires Twitter to provide the name, address, session records, telephone number and temporary IP addresses associated with Rae's account.

Rae, an organizer and labor activist, was arrested last October along with hundreds of other protesters when Occupy Wall Street attempted to cross the vehicle roadway of New York's Brooklyn Bridge. He was charged with blocking traffic, improper use of a roadway and failure to obey orders.

Rae told Mashable that he's going to file a motion against the DA's request. Rae pointed out that all of his tweets are public, but he's concerned that the second part of the subpeona, which demands information not publicly available, has negative implications for free speech.

The New York County District Attorney's Office has declined to comment.

Twitter has complied with similar legal motions in the past. Earlier this month, they gave Boston's District Attorney the data of a user who allegedly hacked the Boston Police Department.

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